Winnebago County summit to look at crime's link to mental health

ROCKFORD — Rosecrance Health Network has helped an average of four people a day manage psychiatric crises and avoid unnecessary hospital stays in the first year of its downtown triage center.

The 24-hour center admitted 1,560 people in its first year of operation, which began Oct. 29, 2012, according to data the nonprofit provided. That includes those who used the triage center more than once.

"All of those individuals were going to the ER prior, and you know what it costs to go into the ER," said Mary Ann Abate, Rosecrance's vice president of community mental health. "The fewer hospitalizations in the lifetime of a person with a serious mental illness is a better prognosis."

The number of people using the center is a sign of the need in the community for mental health services. Those whose mental health issues go untreated can be a danger to themselves and others, filling jails and escalating public-safety costs.

On average, 17 percent of the people in the Winnebago County Jail have mental health issues, Superintendent Andrea Tack said. A common fear when the state-operated Singer Mental Health Center closed a year ago — part of what spurred the creation of the triage center — was that inmate numbers would inflate with more mentally ill detainees.

That hasn't happened, Tack said. In fact, the average daily inmate population at the jail is down 5 percent compared with last year.

Health and justice

About 275 more mental health assessments have been conducted at the jail since Singer closed, but Tack credits that to staffing. The jail had fewer staff members who handle mental health screenings for four months last year, when the number of assessments was down.

Winnebago County's specialty courts have been nationally recognized for how they address mental illness in the criminal justice system, but officials are looking for more ways to fill the gaps in services. To that end, Winnebago County Board Chairman Scott Christiansen has called his second public-safety summit.

The first, in January, brought together law enforcement from the region to talk about cooperative policing efforts and other practices. This time it will bring together behavior health, criminal-justice and other treatment professionals to develop ways to better serve people with mental illness.

The goal will be to expand beyond the system to have a continuum of care before, during and after an arrest. A small, working group will gather in a Thursday afternoon session to pinpoint gaps in service and put together an action plan for improvements.

"We know that nationally and locally we have a huge overrepresentation of persons with mental health and substance-abuse issues in our jails and prisons," said Michelle Rock, director of the Illinois Center of Excellence for Behavioral Health and Justice.

Triage results

Rosecrance renovated the Ware Center, 526 W. State St., last fall to include recliner-style chairs, showers, laundry, a kitchen and waiting room where clients can be treated and referred to follow-up treatment.

The triage center is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but it has no overnight beds because people can't stay there more than 23 hours. The average stay is four hours.

Abate said the triage center is far less traumatic for people than an ER setting, and it has mental health specialists who can provide more effective and immediate care.

"Access is everything and really the only (24-7) access we've had in this community is the emergency room," she said.

Sixty-six percent of those who checked into the Rosecrance triage center were stabilized and sent home with connections to services they need.

The center discharged 17 percent to a crisis residential program and 15 percent to emergency departments for medical issues or inpatient hospital psychiatric beds; 1 percent were admitted to a detox program.

Specialty courts

Homeless and mentally people often account for a large number of multiple bookings at the jail, Sheriff Dick Meyers said. Judge Janet Holmgren described it as a revolving door of people arrested for nuisance crimes that are committed often enough they may elevate to the felony level.

"Instead of having them continue to revolve through the justice system, the community and back, we're trying to stabilize them so they can co-exist peacefully in the community and be productive in the community," said Holmgren, who presides over the county's specialty courts.

The Therapeutic Intervention Program is a special court aimed at reducing the number of arrests of people with mental illness, increase access to treatment and reduce the number of days they spend in jail.

Data collected by the court show that people spend fewer days in jail after completing the program. It's also reduced the number of ER check-ins and hospital visits.

Participants may struggle with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, depress and other mood disorders. They also often struggle with substance abuse. About 70 percent also had an addiction to drugs or alcohol.

Most often, those in the program have been arrested for domestic battery, turning violent toward members of their families during a mental health crisis.

Completion of the program is far from assured. Three hundred seven people have been accepted into the program since 2005, and 37 percent either graduate or receive a certificate of successful participation. Twenty-four percent of cases are active.

Even those who don't graduate often reduce the amount of time they spend in jail after participating, data show.

"People think that these (programs) are soft on crime, but in fact they're very intensive and rigorous programs that require a lot out of the participant," Holmgren said. "Treatment is a lot less expensive than warehousing someone at prison or building prisons to create the capacity you need."

Kevin Haas: 815-987-1410; khaas@rrstar.com; @KevinMHaas

By the numbers

17% Male inmates with major mental disorders (U.S.)

34% Female inmates with major mental disorders (U.S.)

70% Offenders with mental disorders who have substance-abuse problems

32,194 Fewer jail days served after participation in Therapeutic Intervention Program